Call of Duty: Black Ops Preview

You'll need a Wallet of Mass Destruction.

It all goes – surprise surprise – a bit tits up after that, so before long you're getting stuck into densely packed corridors of enemies and dodging bullets over the rooftops of Hong Kong. It's all greys, neon and angles, with you scrambling for (ideally) a shotgun to take out the swarm of enemies congregating on your position.

One of the biggest problems, though, is on-screen text. This is fixed to the front plane of display, but it's a 2D image stuck in a 3D world. It's workable, but it doesn't look quite right – though it's more of a restriction of the technology rather than any mistake on Treyarch's part, I think.

But it also affects the 2D crosshairs. These have been turned off by default, and you can see why: it looks really weird with them on. This is especially jarring with the wider crosshair spreads of weapons like the shotgun.

And, of course, Treyarch is also encouraging 3D gamers to use the iron sights as much as possible. Here the game separates the weapon to the front of the screen and the action to the back, and while the effect takes a bit of getting used to it does make you feel like you're actually looking down your weapon.

Some bits will naturally be more striking than others. Rappelling down the side of a mountain in the level WMD looks phenomenal, and when a dense patrol of enemy soldiers walk past you at the start of the same level you get a far more accomplished (and impressive) sense of depth than you would without the glasses.

You'll also come across a fair few sections that don't really pop out at the player, though, and it's with these bits the game's 3D sometimes feels like it's relying on using the iron sights for immediate 'wow' factor. Black Ops hasn't been designed to be viewed solely through 3D glasses, after all, but this is clearly a conceit prospective 3D gamers are going to have to make for a few years to come. When it does work, however, the effect is powerful and striking – good enough to make me Google how much 3DTVs are currently going for. Sigh, if only I was a millionaire.

3D won't appeal to everyone, of course, but what's clear from seeing a few levels in motion is how Treyarch has managed to seamlessly incorporate 3D into Black Ops on the sly. It looks more impressive than what I've seen of Guerrilla's implementation of the same technology in Killzone 3, and it's also very impressive to see it running on the 360. How Treyarch has managed to keep quiet about the fact it's going to be the first blockbuster shooter to support stereoscopic 3D is beyond me, but that's exactly what it's done.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is due for release on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii and DS on November 9.